I'm just, you know, I'm just the guy that does the thing. We've run out of pie.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Games, bringing families together since, well forever...

There seems to be a resurgence in board and card gaming. (Hereafter referred to as table top gaming.) I think that's a great thing.

I was 9 years old when the Atari 2600 (VCS) launched with it launched a competition for the free time of American families. I have to admit I played a lot more 2600 games than table top games for the next few years. But that doesn't mean I didn't play any table top games. Battleship, Stratego, Connect Four, Mouse Trap, Operation, Sorry, Trouble, Mille Bornes, we played them all.

As I got older though computer and video games took more and more of my time and traditional games stayed on the shelf. The only table top games I remember playing after this were Uno and Rummikub with my grandmother, she really didn't get video games at all.

When my wife and I started our family we brough table top games back into our home, kids games but still games. Candy land, Connect Four made a return, along with memory and a few others. Eventually though as our daughter got older computer games and eventually console games took what little gaming time there was. Our boys really only played table top games when they were small because by '98 when they were born video games were the unchallenged champ of leisure time with games for children as young as a year available.

While I enjoyed playing video games with my kids, there is something to be said for table top gaming. it's more interactive, more friendly. For the last year or so we have been (as a family) playing more table top games. There seems to be a never ending supply of new table top games available with new ones every month. We have played Munchkin, Fluxx, Zombie Dice, Ticket To Ride, Wits and Wagers, Apples to Apples, Battle of the Sexes, and Castle Panic not to mention expansions of a number of those. (expansions for board games are not the kind of money grubbing suck hole that freemium video games are but are additional content for existing complete games at a discount over the cost of a complete game., see my last post Freemium is a friendly way to say price gouging…)

We have had a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and spent quality time together as a family. What more can you ask of some plastic, cardboard and paper?

The table top game industry is growing fast and there is no shortage of games, information, and fun to be had. Some great websites you can go to for all your gaming needs are:

Board Game Geek - A great website that has all the information you could ever need about games and gamers.

TableTop - A reality show hosted by Wil Wheaton. He and his friends get together and play table top games. Great fun!

On The Table - A web show about table top games and the industry, more focus on war gaming.